Warmth
by Eldr-Fire
Summary: Kakashi comes home in time for Halloween. Kakashi Gaiden spoilers as always. KakaRin fluff. No lemon. Disclaimer: I own nothing.


In my (arguably limited) experience, there are no good Kakashi Halloween stories on this site, and certainly no good KakaRin Halloween ones. Partially inspired by the song "I Miss You" by Blink 182. Autumn is my favorite season... happy Halloween.

* * *

Red and golden leaves whirled about, dancing in and out of the current of the wind. The damp grass was yellowing; despite frequent showers of rain, the drop in temperature was taking its toll, and the blades of grass were slowly dying. Along with them passed the hazy daydreams of summer, fading away like the afterimage of a firework. The trees were steadily being stripped bare by the wind and the cold, carpeting the ground with crunchy brown leaves and reminding the world of its nakedness. The sun shone boldly in the piercingly blue sky, bathing the village in its golden rays. 

The beauty of autumn was all fine and dandy, of course, but to a shinobi of the Leaf Village it meant harvesting season, which in turn meant tedious missions guarding superstitious farmers as they picked their crops, helping out with the fields if the pay was in need of raising. Hatake Kakashi had just returned from one such mission, wherein he had been the butt of all too many "jokes" involving his name, if they could be called that. Out of courtesy and shortage of funds he nodded mutely to each crack the aging farmer made, but as he prowled out of the swinging double doors of HQ he was in a decidedly humorless mood. He gave the chuunin at the desk a sour look through the slits in his ANBU mask as he rounded a sharp corner, shoving his hands into his pockets. He was more annoyed than anything; as he tried to recite the mission details in his head (a bad habit he had picked up from his father), the image of a scarecrow with his face stitched onto it kept popping into his head. He let out a low growl, frightening a passing wide-eyed child. Kakashi paid the child no attention; he was used to people staring in awe at him but hurrying away when he made any sign of life.

He paid no heed to the foliage as he walked through the streets; he had never had a very good eye for those sorts of things. He rarely found the beauty in anything, let alone _trees_, for heaven's sake… He lost his train of thought as a familiar scent reached his unusually sensitive nose. Smells, those were his department… He frowned. Images of flames flitted through his mind; sections of forests being leveled in one sweep of a fiery, swishing tail—

But this wasn't the smell of burning forests, he reasoned, shaking the thought from his head; just burning wood. He glanced to his right, over the top of a rotted wooden fence to where a family sat gathered around a small fire (hardly a fire, he thought, more smoldering wood and wispy smoke).

_Family. Hmm._

He supposed his family had spent time together like that, but he had no recollection of any such occasion. His earliest memories were of his father conversing in dark tones with the doctors while he sat on a chair next to his mother's hospital bed, fascinated by the cold feeling of the chair legs as he curled his own around them. He thought that he and his father had, maybe, spent a Christmas in her hospital room, sitting on opposite sides of her hospital bed. Kakashi remembered that there had been few presents and that he had done most of the talking. Other than that, though, there had never been any time for holidays, so Sakumo and Kakashi just ignored them. They took advantage of the higher-paying missions offered during the holiday season, when most other shinobi were celebrating. After Sakumo died, too, Kakashi always made sure he was working hard on holidays so that he wouldn't have the time to feel lonely.

The members of Team Yellow Flash had usually celebrated holidays with their respective families; Obito attended the infamous Uchiha holiday parties, Sensei snuggled with his darling Kushina, and Rin had quiet dinners with her family. Kakashi had spent the evenings utterly alone, busying himself with some mindless activity in an effort to alleviate the icy pangs of loneliness.

Then again, there _had _been the time when Obito had dragged the three of them to the Uchiha New Year's Party, but everyone preferred not to think about it. It had ended in countless apologies on Sensei's part, Kakashi's eye almost being gouged out on four independent occasions, and Obito being put through extra, rigorous training at the hands of some of his more sadistic cousins. Rin had escaped unscathed but had never been invited to the Uchiha estate again (which was probably for the better anyway, seeing as the half who didn't blame Obito's death on Kakashi blamed it on her). Despite the threats to his life, however, it had been the most exciting holiday Kakashi had ever had, and he was more than a little sad that nothing like it had ever followed.

Of course, now their precious team of four had been weathered down to two. It had been three years since Sensei's death and four years since Obito's. The experiences and camaraderie their team had shared seemed distant to Kakashi, faded memories of a happier time. He had never been able to look in the mirror, but now there were times when he couldn't even look at Rin without having nostalgia wrap itself around him like the alluring melody of a forgotten lullaby.

Another familiar scent wafted towards him, this time of a more pleasant nature; he closed his eyes, drinking it in as best he could through two masks. It was subtle and sweet, like flower petals lined with dew…

"Kakashi?"

He snapped his eyes open, his blush hidden by his masks. Standing before him was Rin, her warm brown eyes peering up at him from above a thick red scarf that concealed the lower half of her face. She was wrapped tightly in a dark woolen coat. Kakashi noticed that she was wearing thin black gloves as she tugged down the scarf, revealing a broad smile and pink cheeks.

"Hi Kakashi!" she said cheerfully. Her eyes widened and a hand flew to her mouth, however, as she seemed to realize something. "Oh! I mean… Wolf, what're you—"

"It's all right," Kakashi said, sliding his porcelain mask to the side of his face. His eyes crinkled in a smile. "Hi Rin."

Rin's smile returned as she shifted her weight nervously from foot to foot. "I'm glad I caught you, I was just about to go and ask if you were back," she said quickly. Kakashi tried to ignore the fact that the now deep blush in her face wasn't going away. "And if you weren't I wasn't sure what I was going to do with all the decorations, I mean, there were so many and the apartment building is so big and—"

"Decorations?" Kakashi cocked an eyebrow in confusion, screwing his left eye shut. "For what?"

Rin looked confused for a moment before realization dawned upon her. "But of course, you've been gone for what, a week now?" Kakashi nodded, at which Rin smiled.

"Well, today's Halloween!"

Kakashi raised both eyebrows at that one.

"Halloween?" He had never, in all of his memory, celebrated Halloween. In Sakumo's book, if you were old enough to fight for your country then you were sure as hell not going to miss an irreplaceable day of battle time to run around in costumes. To his father's credit, though, he couldn't remember anyone celebrating it when he was growing up; things were scary enough during wartime without a holiday to _celebrate _it, and parents weren't foolish enough to send their kids outside after dark.

"You mean… the one where kids run around dressed as monsters and ring doorbells, getting candy?" _What was it called…? Something like… treating…_

Rin nodded enthusiastically. "Mm-hm!" Reading the skeptical look on his face, she quickly amended, "Oh, I'm not saying we actually go trick-or-treating—" _(ah, yes, that was it) _"— just that we hand out candy to little kids."

"…So that they can rot their teeth?"

Rin's face fell just a little bit. "No, so that they can have fun." She looked embarrassed now, sending a cold feeling clutching at Kakashi's heart. He smiled one of his trademarked smiles, scratching the back of his neck absently.

"Great. Sounds like fun."

Rin beamed at him and turned around, calling after him as she started to walk down the street. He walked alongside her, listening to her fill him in on all that had been happening while he was away.

"And the leaves have started to change too, although maybe you don't notice that sort of thing… Oh, and I picked all of the apples off of the tree in the back of the apartments and I've saved them so that we can make applesauce later— I bought lots of cinnamon, but I won't put too much in because I know you don't like it…"

They eventually reached the shabby apartment building they called home; Kakashi noticed that the front door had been draped in spiderwebs and lined with orange lights. He and Rin climbed the staircase silently as he took in the numerous decorations that had been put up all over the walls, preparing the tenants for the upcoming holiday.

Rin unlocked the door to Kakashi's apartment, to which she had always had a key, swinging open the door. A week after Sensei had died, Rin had pushed open this same door to find Kakashi huddled in a corner of the kitchen, sitting in a pool of his own blood and sobbing over a photograph he was cradling in his bloody arms. Rin, whose family had died in the attack too, had promptly rented the vacant apartment across the hall and moved in a few days later. Now she was only a knock away from Kakashi when he most needed her.

His apartment was clean as it always was when he had been away; Rin spent her free time cleaning it while he was gone on long assignments. She unwrapped her scarf and hung it neatly on a hook on the wall, pointing in the direction of the bathroom.

"You can take a shower first, if you like, and then we have some work to do."

Kakashi sighed wearily as he always did when she used the determined tone of voice she had adopted from Sensei, wordlessly slipping into the bathroom and wishing for nothing more than a nice, warm nap.

(…)

A shower, a drop in temperature, and countless boxes later, Kakashi stood rather proudly in front of the apartment building, shoving his gloved hands deep into his pockets. In the past few hours, he and Rin had managed to make their shabby building almost completely unrecognizable; it was decked out in Halloween colors and covered from top to bottom in all manners of spiderwebs, paper chains, decorative lights and glow-in-the-dark writing. The front step was flanked by two formidable pumpkins, both with faces carved in the likenesses of two eternally smiling fallen comrades, their happiness immortalized for the night in the gently flickering candles behind their jagged smiles. Again Kakashi had been forced to endure a scarecrow joke or two as he and Rin had erected one to the left of the walkway, which they had lined with stocky black lanterns. Rin had disappeared for an hour or so while Kakashi decorated ruthlessly, returning with her shopping bags overflowing with all kinds of candies imaginable and two long, slender packages slung over her back.

"What are those?" Kakashi asked, peeking over the towering pile of candy Rin had deposited into his waiting arms. After exhaling a long-held breath of relief, Rin peered at him in confusion.

"Hm?" she asked. He nodded at her shoulder and she turned her head, eyes widening in acknowledgement. Her lips curled into a devious smile, her eyes narrowing as she turned gleefully back to Kakashi.

"Those, Kakashi, are our _costumes._"

(…)

Kakashi's despairing was interrupted by an impatient knocking on his bedroom door.

"Kakashi? Is everything okay in there?"

Kakashi whimpered in response, wincing as he eyed his reflection in the mirror.

"Kakashi?" Rin's voice sounded more urgent this time. "Kakashi, I'm coming in—"

"No!" Kakashi's shout halted Rin's hand as she made to turn the doorknob. He hurried to reassure her. "I'm fine, it's just—"

"Just _what_?" In the absence of any imminent threat, her impatience had returned.

"Just that…" He took a deep breath. "Rin, I look… _ridiculous._"

A pause, and then…

Rin's laughter resounded throughout the apartment.

"Kakashi, I'm sure you look _fine_—"

"No, I don't," he grumbled, tugging at the fabric of his frilly collar. "I will not_ parade_ myself in such an _outlandish_—"

The door swung open as Rin stepped inside, standing framed in the doorway. Kakashi did not look, however; his watery gaze was locked on his mirror image as he twisted and turned, observing all possible angles and trying to calculate which was most humiliating.

"Oh, Kakashi, don't fuss," Rin said, tutting softly as she crossed the room. "When the woman at the store recognized me, she chose this one especially for you."

"And _why _might that be?" Kakashi snapped, still focusing solely on his own reflection.

"It has an eyepatch."

Kakashi sighed wearily, looking himself up and down. He was indeed wearing an eyepatch over his borrowed eye, as well as a ridiculous frilly collar and a dark tan vest. He had a fake sword at his hip and baggy pants that were tied with bandages around his ankles. There was also a stuffed parrot sitting on his shoulder, wearing an eyepatch to match his own and a loopy smile that sported several blackened teeth.

Stopping beside him, she tapped him on the shoulder. He turned his head towards her and nearly staggered.

She was nearly unrecognizable as the Rin he knew so well. Her hair had been wound into a bun that sat perched atop her head, held by a black band with a rose on it. She wore dark eyeshadow and bloodred lipstick, with a matching collar tight around her neck. The sleeves of her dress were black; tight at the top but branching out into tattered lace, ending shortly above the wrists. They were connected to the black, topmost layer of her dress, which was tied with crisscrossing black laces across the dark red dress beneath it. The waist was tight but the rest was not, spilling out into a seductive (at least in Kakashi's opinion) array of deep red satin and dark lace.

He blinked twice, overwhelmed by a side of Rin he had never quite experienced. She broke the spell, however, as a sheepish grin crawled across her face.

"Do you like it?" she asked, fingering her lips shyly.

Kakashi nodded mutely, not trusting his own ability to speak.

Rin smiled, bouncing up and down slightly in her excitement. Kakashi was glad for the mask concealing his blush; the dress was rather low-cut.

"Okay, now get your hat on! There are already kids walking around outside!" She turned and hurried out of the room. Kakashi stood motionless for several long moments, watching her hips sway as she tried to steady herself in the black heels that she wore. Once the echoes of her footsteps had faded, however, he took a deep breath and followed her out, letting the door swing shut behind him.

(…)

Kakashi had never known that kids could be so _greedy _when it came to sweet things. He had rarely had anything sugary as a child and had never developed much of a taste for candy. Maybe it came with being born and bred in wartime, but there had never been any sweets around when he was growing up. Nowadays, though, kids would take as much chocolates and lollipops as they could get their sticky fingers on. And _never _had Kakashi thought he would learn to hate a phrase so much as "trick or treat"; every time that godforsaken doorbell rang he'd have to throw open the door and put on a smile as he watched all manner of monsters hold out their bags and demand a plethora of candy.

He and Rin had divided their door-answering time into shifts; Kakashi, never having celebrated Halloween, miscalculated and ended up having to deal with more kids by far than Rin did. _Which is sort of ironic, because Rin's infinitely better with kids than I am._

"Thank you!" Kakashi's lip twitched as he smiled at the little hands waving good-bye as their owners scurried out of sight, running off to hoard more candy. He didn't envy their parents; he wondered just how sick the little maggots were going to be come tomorrow morning.

He sighed, collapsing into one of the two plastic chairs that flanked the door. Opposite him sat Rin, a bowl of candy balancing delicately atop her knees. The two of them yawned simultaneously, running their hands through their respective hair.

"How much candy can they eat?" Kakashi groaned, slumping forward in the chair. He rubbed his forehead with his forefinger and thumb, closing his eyes and savoring the peace that came in between knocks.

Rin let out a sleepy "mm-hmm" in reply, rubbing at her eyes with one hand. Kakashi didn't notice that her answer didn't match the question; it was rhetorical at any rate and he was too tired to care. He stood up, turning the chair around and sitting back down on it backwards. His arms were folded across the top of its back, his chin resting in them. Rin could tell from his eye that he was pouting at her, his eyebrows turned up in a pleading sort of way.

"Can we call it a night?"

Rin yawned again, contemplating the bowl in her lap before looking up at him and smiling.

"Sure," she said. Kakashi let out a sigh of relief as they both stood up, picking up all the stray bags of candy that littered the floor around them.

"It's gonna be a pain having to pick all of this up in the morning," Kakashi groaned, glancing mournfully at the innumerous decorations. He let Rin go up the stairs first, secretly basking in the pleasure of watching her climb them.

"I'm sure we can recruit Asuma and Kurenai to help out," Rin said, her excessive cheeriness betraying her fatigue. "Oooh, and Gai would love to help out too, especially if we posed it as a challenge—"

She stopped walking as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned her head to see Kakashi's eye boring into her own, any hint of merriment gone from his black orb.

"Don't."

She could almost feel the darkness radiating off of him in waves as he tried to nonverbally convey just how terrifying a prospect it was. She stifled a giggle before continuing to walk up the staircase, trying to hide her laughter as Kakashi followed in silent mortification.

She reached their floor and stopped, standing frozen at the beginning of the hallway. Kakashi came to a stop beside her, raising an eyebrow at her. She did not pay him any attention. Her eyes flickered from her door to his and she seemed to make up her mind, starting again but this time in the direction of Kakashi's apartment. He followed, although his eyebrow remained raised.

"You're dumping it all in my place?" he teased as she unlocked the door and prodded it open with her foot. "How unkind of you, Rin."

"Maybe," Rin said, setting the candy down on the kitchen counter, "you can eat it all up and put some meat on those bones." She smiled innocently at him as he scowled before making her way to the kitchen. Kakashi deposited his candy bags beside hers and trudged over to the kitchen, tossing his hat onto the counter as he went. He nimbly lifted himself onto the table and sat cross-legged on it, yawning as Rin rummaged through the cupboards.

"You won't find much in there," Kakashi said, propping his chin up on the palm of his hand. He watched in mild amusement as Rin grew more and more frustrated with his lack of adequate food supplies.

"Honestly, Kakashi, do you eat _anything_?" Kakashi let out a soft "tut" as he took this blow a little farther below the belt than he was comfortable with.

"Yes," he said defiantly. He blinked once before realizing how childish he had sounded. He shrugged it off, saying, "I'm usually never here, so I don't bother to stock up on groceries…"

Rin sighed softly; Kakashi assumed it was in exasperation.

"What are we going to do with you, Hatake Kakashi?" She turned to smile at him; he returned the gesture, the light of the single bulb flickering in his eye.

Their gazes lingered on each other before she returned to the two mugs and the chocolate powder she had salvaged from the deepest depths of his cupboards. To Kakashi's credit, he had at least had such a necessity as milk, and she poured some of into each mug along with the powder. A sweet scent reached Kakashi's sensitive nose as she stirred the ingredients together; he slipped soundlessly off of the table and padded over to where Rin was standing, peering interestedly over her shoulder.

"Hot chocolate?" Rin nodded as she reached over to the microwave and placed both of the mugs inside. After setting it for the appropriate time she flipped around, pressing both of her palms into the counter as she leaned against it. He stood slanted towards her, hands shoved loosely into his pockets. She looked up at him, the remnants of the smile still decorating her face. It returned in full force as he looked back at her, his eye creasing in a smile. She felt herself blush and, not for the first time, envied the mask that hid his emotions. As she thought more about the mask, however, she frowned a little.

"'Kashi?" He almost quirked an eyebrow at the nickname but decided that he didn't mind it too much when she said it.

"Mm?"

Her eyes darted down nervously for a moment as the blush in her face rose. Ten years later he would be regretting that he hadn't told her how beautiful he thought she looked, but at the time it never occurred to him. He was blushing himself, but with his mask and the lighting there was no way she could tell.

"Would you… would you mind taking your mask off?" She looked up at him hopefully, biting her lip.

He blinked.

"My mask?"

A fervent nod.

Kakashi sighed and for a moment she looked as if her hopes had been dashed; she immediately looked embarrassed, opening her mouth to apologize before he smiled, reaching up a hand to the cloth above his nose.

"Sure." His broad smile was revealed as he tugged the mask down, letting the dark material bunch around his neck. She beamed up at him and both of them flushed a deep shade of red. They blinked simultaneously and their cheeks lightened a bit, but they were both unable to say anything for several moments. Thankfully, the beeping of the microwave broke the uncomfortable silence and Rin hurried to remove the warm mugs.

"Careful, it's hot," she said, handing one to Kakashi. He cupped it in his hands, raising it to his nose and inhaling slowly. He let out a whimper of bliss and blew softly on it, his eyes crossing (although Rin could only see one) as he eyed the tantalizing steam.

"Delicious," he murmured, smiling at Rin over the mug. She giggled before blowing on hers too; her eyes watered with the warmth.

"Hey, I have an idea," she said brightly as Kakashi took a cautionary sip of his chocolate. He raised a pale eyebrow at her, interested.

"Hm?"

"We should watch a movie."

Kakashi closed his eyes, his head nodding back and forth unconsciously as he contemplated her proposal.

"Hmm…" he took a deep sniff of the hot chocolate in his mug before sighing and cracking an eye open to smile at her. "All right."

She flashed a smile at him before walking past to go to the living room. He followed at her heels like a loyal pup, sinking into the cushion beside hers as he sat next to her on the couch. It was old and worn but very squashy, and that was good enough for him. Plus, by the way she settled so comfortably into her seat, it was good enough for Rin too, and that seemed to be the most important thing.

It took them several long moments to realize that the screen was blank. Ever the gentleman, a sighing Kakashi slid off the couch and crawled over to the cabinet beneath the television.

"Movie?"

He and Rin spent a few minutes debating before eventually reaching the conclusion to watch one of the cheesy horror movies Sensei had given Kakashi as a birthday present once. He put the tape in and returned to his comfortable spot on the couch, not minding in the slightest that he and Rin were touching.

The movie was old and had poor special effects, but it was fun and it was scary and they couldn't help but being reminded of Sensei as they listened to the villains telling corny jokes as thunder boomed ominously in the background. Rin laughed with Kakashi when it was funny and when it was scary, she clung to his arm like a lifeline and refused to let go. Even as the ending credits scrolled across the screen and the sound of static filled the room, neither of them moved. The tape ended and Kakashi hit the off button on the remote with his free hand. The other hand, being attached to the arm that was attached to Rin, was otherwise occupied. Her hand was resting dangerously close to his, and he could sense the vibrations of her fingers as they twitched restlessly. His heart began to pound harder in his chest as he considered her movements. He could feel the warmth of her fingers now, and as one rubbed against his hand he felt a jolt in the pit of his stomach.

_What…? _

His heart, beating more quickly than ever, jerked to a halt as he felt the warm touch of her palm as she rested her hand on his. Then, slowly, his heartbeat started up again, albeit slowly, cautiously. His confidence climbed slowly, stumbling a little along the way, before he squeezed her hand and locked his fingers with hers. He felt her entire body relax as she rested a head against his shoulder, shifting herself more comfortably against him. She murmured something sleepily; Kakashi thought he made out three syllables but her words sounded so blurred and he was just so _tired…_

His head fell quietly to the side as the warmth of unconsciousness overwhelmed the both of them and they fell asleep, their fingers intertwined.


End file.
